VRAD (Source 2)

Source Engine

Source 2

Resourcecompiler ▶ VRAD2/VRAD3

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VRAD3 is the command-line tool that calculates and embeds lighting data into compiled maps, using a graphics card (GPU) with ray tracing support (or CPU on older engine versions). It is the Source 2 counterpart of Source 1's VRAD.

Earlier Source 2 games, such as Half-Life: Alyx and SteamVR Home, use VRAD2 to preview baked lighting in Hammer using CPU to bake lighting.

Newer versions of the engine, such as Counter-Strike 2, use VRAD3 which requires a GPU with ray tracing support, such as NVIDIA RTX series, AMD RX 6000 series (or later/other RDNA2) cards or Intel Arc (since Jan 2025) graphics cards.

VRAD2 and the old CPU lighting compiler have been removed in Counter-Strike 2 as of the Armory Update.

Bug:Systems with the latest NVIDIA (and possibly AMD) drivers may have issues with VRAD3, causing it to crash (with VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST) while baking lighting during map compilation.  (tested in: )

Note:VRAD3 in all Source 2 games before Counter-Strike 2 are CPU-only. After Counter-Strike 2, VRAD requires GPU with ray-tracing support.

Games with VRAD2

• All Source 2 games except Counter-Strike 2, and newer versions of Dota 2 (since 2023/2024).

Games with VRAD3

Valve

• Counter-Strike 2
• Dota 2 (later version)
• Half-Life: Alyx
• SteamVR Home (later version)

Third-party

• S&box

Todo: Add more information about Source 2's VRAD2/VRAD3 lighting.

Command line options

Todo: List more command line options.

VRAD2

^[Todo]

VRAD3

Argument	Description
-script	Specify VRAD3 script file.

See also

• VRAD - Source 1 counterpart.
• QRAD - GoldSrc counterpart.